CHAIR OF MEDICAL

SYSTEMS TECHNOLOGY

i-Violin (Implementing verifiable oncological imaging by quality assurance and optimisation) is a 24-month project (September 2022 – August 2024) co-funded by the EU under the EU4Health programme 2021-2027, EU4H-2021-PJ-03 Action grants for a project on the quality and safety of radiation technology in diagnosis and treatment of cancer which brings together 10 partners from 9 countries.

i-Violin Objectives

The objectives of i-Violin are to satisfy the clearly identified need to optimise and harmonise oncological imaging procedures in Europe and ensure their broad adoption.

The main objectives of i-Violin are: 

1. To implement a standardised way of optimisation in oncological imaging approaches in clinical practice by adapting and deploying tools for quantifiable image quality assessment as well as by validating commercially available software solutions for patient dose determination in imaging procedures, using the output of the MEDIRAD and other EC-funded projects. 
2. To implement such tools and the proposed optimised procedures in (university) hospitals throughout Europe that are members of the i-Violin consortium, 
3. To disseminate these tools and optimised procedures to interested hospitals and healthcare providers in Europe to contribute towards a harmonised and standardised oncological imaging approach. 
4. To provide a suitable education and training programme for radiologists, radiographers and medical physicists to be able to use the harmonisation tools. 
5. To disseminate the results to policymakers, the medical societies and other relevant stakeholders to foster uptake and implementation.

The current disparities in oncological imaging procedures in Europe are evident from several projects and surveys conducted by the EuroSafe Imaging campaign, which i-Violin can address at the European level to improve cancer care for Europe’s patients.

Against the multiple hurdles preventing optimisation of oncological imaging approaches, i-Violin aims to disseminate the image quality assessment tool developed in MEDIRAD for chest CT in hospitals throughout Europe and adjust it for imaging procedures in the abdominal and pelvic regions, for which no satisfactory tool exists. The outcome of available commercial software for evaluating patient-specific dose indicators will be cross-validated against more sophisticated dose-evaluation tools for determining organ doses dependent on patient parameters and image settings as developed for chest CT. Furthermore, only a combination of image-quality assessment and dose evaluation on the same patient images can allow patient- and indication-specific optimisation with respect to patient radiation protection.

A European database will be established for CT images resulting from different imaging parameters, corresponding patient dose indicators and image quality indicators, and recommendations will be given for these approaches.

European adoption of optimisation measures for image quality assessment and dose evaluation in member states must be fostered through dissemination of i-Violin’s deliverables among hospitals, policy makers, societies and other stakeholders and implementation of education and training activities. i-Violin will contribute to establishing a harmonised and standardised oncological imaging approach, and a targeted education and training programme for radiologists, radiographers and medical physicists will accompany dissemination and foster uptake.

 EIBIR project page
Click here for project details and updates on www.eibir.org 

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.